Chaperones
by AstronDaAce
Summary: In a last ditch attempt after a lost 10 year war, Ozpin used all his remaining magic to send a knight and a reaper through time to guide their younger selves through a journey of hardships and discovery... Or something like that. Besides, we all know revenge is a dish best served with your family. Younger selves count as family, right?
1. Chapter 1

**Ignore that**

It's the middle of the night on Patch island. Naturally, everyone in Xiao-Long household was feast asleep. Well...they should have been. A singular upstairs bedroom window shone through the night. Inside, a young girl in red pyjamas sat wide awake in her bed, asking an important question to the strange man that appeared in front of her bed.

"So you're like, my future husband?" An eight year old Ruby asked, scratching her head in obvious confusion.

The man, a tall regal figure with golden blond hair and a singular visible sapphire eye, the other being hidden behind a sort of eye patch. He wore a black hoodie under white armour with golden trims along with faded jeans, some sort of red sash on top of his belt and thick boots. A sword hung loosely off his hip in a gold and white sheath. He gave the girl a nervous chuckle as he nodded.

"Yeah, kinda, it's a bit more complicated... Ok a lot more complicated than that but that's essentially who I am."

Ruby's eyes flitted around her room, "A-and all the other stuff, about the world ending. All the people I care about d-dying?"

The man, John (though he openly admitted that the name was fake), had his expression turn solemn, "Yeah, all true, I should know, I was there."

He said it in a way that made Ruby feel bad for him. Usually when someone said 'I was there' they sound very proud of themselves. John didn't, he just sounded sad, "I'm sorry." The girl muttered.

John's smile came back, though it lacked the warmth of before, "Don't be, it's not your fault. Besides , we're here to stop all that from happening in the first place."

That's the other thing, we. Apparently, there's another Ruby out there, a really skilled, older Ruby with magic powers. That last part messed the girl up more than anything else. Magic, not a semblance, magic. Sure, John played it off as something unimpressive ("it's not even close to what the maidens can do") but Ruby saw some of his magic and ended up impressed either way.

"And you need my help to save the world?" She asked, having not forgotten the man's previous request.

John's hands came up in a placating gesture, "I'm not Ozpin, I won't try and force you to run away from home 'for the greater good'," he said the phrase the same way Yang said 'classical music', "the thing is, I can't go anywhere outside a mile radius of you, so if you just want to train on Patch with me, that's fine. But realistically, if you want to really get stronger, you can roll with us. It won't be easy but there's no easy way to beat Salem."

There's that name again, Salem, the Queen of all Grimm. Just the idea sent a shiver down the girl's spine, especially after she heard everything Salem had done. Killing Yang, Uncle Qrow, her dad and countless others, huntsmen and huntresses in bulk.

How could someone be so strong?

How did her future self fight someone that strong and live?

Ruby clutched her bed cover tightly, "D-Do you think we can actually beat her and save the world?" She asked, unsure of herself.

John thought about it for a moment, "I'm not sure. But it's possible," he added the last sentence after he saw her face fall, "It's definitely possible, just really hard, you'll also need to train your a-uh-butt off. Rose and I will help with that, obviously." Her face lit up slightly… before it fell once more.

"W-wait, how do I know if you're telling the truth?" It sounded stupid, even to her, she's been digesting this man's tale of the future but she didn't even know if he was making it all up or not.

John nodded with understanding and did a strange hand motion. The air to his right sparkled briefly before a glowing white line trailed downward in the same area, as if an invisible knife took to cutting through space itself.

The rip in space then widened till it was a glowing white disc about the same size as a dinner plate. John proceeded to stick his hand into the glowing disc, Ruby gasped when she realized the appendage didn't exit through the other side.

John pushed his arm in further, apparently searching for something. He was elbow deep in the strange portal thing before he let out a soft "Ah" and retracted his arm with an object in tow. He held the object forward for Ruby to see.

It was a framed photo of a couple, Ruby guessed they were getting married due to the way they were dressed. Ruby recognized the man on the left as John, even though he had both his eyes in the picture, he wore a suit on his body and a smile on his face. The woman next to him somehow managed to look even more pleased with the situation if the way her face split was anything to go by. Of course it's her features that drew the girl's attention most.

Black hair with red tips, small stature but most importantly, bright silver eyes. She wore a white frilly dress with a veil and everything. Ruby stared at the picture for longer than was really needed to understand what it showed.

"That's me?" she asked, pointing to the woman in the picture to make sure John knew exactly who she was talking about.

The man chuckled, "It is, I actually carry that picture around with me everywhere I go. You -the future you, anyway- think it's the silliest thing ever but we never really had a house we could put it down in so…" he trailed off, probably realizing that he was just rambling at that point.

Ruby looked back to the picture. She noted the way John's smile looked then and compared it to the one he wore a the moment. It wasn't the same thing, picture John looked almost disarmingly cheerful while real John looked the same way her dad looked when he was lost in thought, before suddenly noticing that one of his daughters was in front of him and changing his mood accordingly.

John spoke, breaking the girl from her thoughts, "I get how showing you a wedding photo isn't enough to convince you, but I really don't have anything else I can show you to make you believe me. Unless Rose comes here directly to do something that'll sway you. Of course, it would take a while but I don't think my past self is that hard to convince. I always had a thing for saving the world."

"What's your real name?"

John looked taken aback by the sudden question but he quickly composed himself, "It's Jaune, since your so interested, Jaune Arc."

"And you're a huntsman?"

John -or Jaune, the names were really similar- raised an eyebrow, "Yes… I've already told you this."

Ruby shifted in her bed under his questioning gaze. Nevertheless, she forged on, "Are you good, like, really really good?"

John raised a hand to stroke his hairless chin in contemplation. He eventually came through with a shrug, "We didn't exactly rank ourselves so I'm not sure. I guess I'm pretty good, I haven't lost a fight to another huntsman- except you- in a year or so. Does that count for something?"

Ruby sat and thought, and thought,and thought. After what had to be several minutes, she spoke again.

"Okay, I believe you."

John sputtered, completely caught off guard, "Ruby, you shouldn't be so trusting," he scolded, "what if I'm the bad guy? I could be trying to kidnap you."

"Then wouldn't you have already done it?" John tilted his head in query, "You just said yourself that you're a huntsman. You could have just scooped me up and jumped out the window. Uncle Qrow does it all the time."

"But you would have woken up and screamed." John countered.

"Then you could have gassed me or used that rag thing in the movies. Besides, what's the point of a long and winding fake tale of time travel and magic? Especially involving photoshopped wedding photos and portal thingies. It seems like too much hard work to me."

John fixed her with a stare,"...You know you're very articulate for an eight year old."

The girl blinked in confusion, "What's an atikoolade?" she asked.

The man shook his head, "That's not important." Then his tone took a serious edge, "So, now that you believe me, are you willing to help? It won't be easy or very fun, and you won't get to see your family for a while but hey, that's the price of heroism." the serious tone was replaced with cynicism near the end while his expression started to turn bitter.

None of this dissuaded the girl though, she crawled out of bed, " Alright, let's go save the world."

###

The Arc household was quiet, this is a rarity since it houses 10 people, eight of them being minors. Naturally, with 10 people under one roof there is rarely a time when everyone is asleep, so one should not be too surprised to find the only son of Arc family to be wide awake in his room. It should, however, raise some eyebrows as to why the boy is awake at this time.

"You're saying I become really strong and cool and I get to save the world?" he asked, his eyes wide with wonder.

He was sitting cross legged on the floor of his family's basement in a baby blue onesie, having a conversation with a woman with black to red hair and silver eyes, she wore a red and black corset and dress along with a red cloak and black boots.

The woman, Rose -or Ruby but she preferred Rose- tilted her head and narrowed her eyes into slits of silver, "I said a lot of things, including how dangerous it is, how you won't see your family for a while and a host of other things that should really dissuade someone from doing something like this."

Jaune pondered this for a moment, then he nodded, "Yeah, but my dad says nothing great is ever easy to get. So I'm with you all the way." the sentence was punctuated with the bravest face Jaune could muster. This was his chance, he can finally train and become the like the huntsmen in the stories his parents used to tell him. How could he pass up this kind of opportunity? It's not like this happens every day.

Rose paused for a moment before nodding, "Okay, pack your things, we leave now." she said, standing up.

Jaune followed her lead as they crept out of the basement and up the stairs. Rose's steps were near silent while his were quite the opposite. With her back turned, the boy noticed a strange metallic red and black rectangular box sticking out from the side of her cloak.

'That must be her weapon' the boy thought, though he didn't know what a box was going to do in a fight, he figured he shouldn't doubt the huntress's prowess.

Rose must have been really good at moving around in the dark because she navigated her way through to Jaune's room even better than he could, and it's his room.

Once inside, Jaune quickly changed into a simple orange t-shirt with shorts and sneakers. He packed his Pumpkin Pete backpack with extra clothes and snacks he had hidden in his drawer (Ha! Take that, Jade).

Rose cracked open the window to the outside and stepped on the roof, she closed the window behind her once Jaune climbed through.

"So how do we get down?" he asked, eyeing the drop nervously.

Rose smiled sweetly at him but under the light of the shattered moon, the boy noticed a cheeky glitter in those silver orbs, "Oh y'know, we jump, obviously."

The boy paled, "H-ha ha, funny, so h-"

Rose pushed him off.

It was a very heroic scream that escaped the blond's mouth as he sailed through open air. The flailing of his arms was also done in a very heroic manner. So as the ground grew ever closer, the heroic shutting of his eyes and bracing for impact was naturally expected.

An impact that never came.

Jaune's first thought was that his math was wrong and he was still falling. After a few seconds though, he decided to peek through one eye.

The ground was right there, but it wasn't getting any closer. The grass was rustling violently as if the wind suddenly picked up for some reason.

'In fact, it is pretty windy for some reason,' the boy mentally said, thoroughly calmed due to his new found levitation ability.

Before he could contemplate further, the wind stopped, he fell on the grass face first.

Picking himself up, the boy turned and gaped at the sight of Rose drifting downwards slowly with the aid of some kind of cyclone around her legs and feet. She touched down as the mini tornado faded away, she then stepped forward and ruffled Jaune's hair, breaking him from his stupor.

"C'mon, we need to get as far from here as possible if we want to escape your family's inevitable search."

Jaune nodded. It's time for life to truly begin, his family will understand.

Probably.


	2. Chapter 2

**Alright, here's chapter two.**

* * *

Lush green grass covered the floor of the forest clearing. The warm shine of the afternoon sun beared down on the surrounding plant life, giving it all a healthy sheen.

It was in this sun touched clearing that a glowing white dot popped into existence, seemingly without any form of warning. The white dot proceeded to cut downwards through the air till it was just shy of ground level, leaving a luminescent white trail in its wake.

The resulting line didn't stay a line for long, it widened as if an invisible force was pulling it across the middle in both the left and right directions. The stretching stopped after a few seconds, the end product of this entire process being a large circle the same color and level of brightness as the dot at the beginning.

The circle hung in the air ominously for a moment, then it acted, spitting out two figures unto the grass in front of it. The figures had barely touched down before the circle winked out of existence.

The first figure, a young girl wearing a black sleeveless top and a red skirt landed on her feet and stumbled, though she still managed to catch herself so as to avoid face planting into the earth.

Her companion, however?

There was a loud thud as the armoured individual kissed the grass. Said individual let out a low groan but made no effort to move, not like he would have made it far, pushing his magic always led to temporary paralysis.

"Welcome to Anima." John grumbled, turning his head to get a better look at the girl next to him.

Ruby's eyes went wide, "We're in Anima?! How'd you do that?" she asked, shock clear on her face.

"With great strain." he moaned.

Ruby gasped and pointed to the sky, "Look! It's bright out, we travelled through time!"

John shook his head, or at least he _tried_ to. He settled for speaking a second later, "No we didn't, it's still night time back on Patch. That's how timezones work."

Ruby nodded in understanding after a brief period of thought, "So… are you going to get up?"

"In time, little Ruby, in time."

That time turned out to be around a minute or two. John tested his arms and legs, flexing them momentarily before feeling assured that he wouldn't pull a muscle. He then stood up and tried his best to wipe the dirt off his front.

' _Okay_ ', he thought, ' _in a few hours, Tai will start loosing his shit.'_ he winced, imagining the kind of grief his fellow blonde will have to go through, ' _of course, we can lessen the blow somewhat.'_ , his plan wasn't perfect. In the end, not everyone gets exactly what they want.

 _Then it's a bad plan_ , there it was, that voice again, the one that followed him through the war, growing louder and louder with every fallen ally. The voice sounded sickeningly close to his own, it taunted him, mocked him.

When Weiss found out about it, she recommended therapy, he refused.

She wasn't around to gloat when he realized she was right.

Something pushed his knee, pulling Johna away from his thoughts. He looked down to see pools of silver staring up at him in concern.

"Are you okay?" Ruby asked.

John drew a breath in and sighed, "Not really, no."

"Oh, sorry." she reached up and patted the man's lower back.

John smiled at her attempts at comfort him. The action itself didn't help much but the intention behind it made him feel better instantly.

"I'll live, there's a village less than a mile that way," John jerked a thumb over his shoulder, he and Rose had already chosen the village before their trip to the past. "That's where we'll be settling down, at least for now."

Ruby nodded and marched in the offered direction, forcing John to play catch-up.

As a final action, he mentally wished his wife some luck. Hoping that everything was going well on her end.

* * *

Now Rose has never kidnapped someone before but she was fairly sure this wasn't supposed to be part of the procedure.

Oh sure, it wasn't _technically_ a kidnapping seeing as the kid that was supposedly in the process of being napped was totally okay with it.

Sadly, not everyone seemed quite as enthused.

The red cloaked huntress ducked, a silver crossbow bolt whizzed through the area her head occupied less than a second before. Her combat boots continued to pound against the path, the weight on her right shoulder bouncing up and down constantly, much to its displeasure.

"GIVE ME BACK MY SON YOU WITCH!" a shrill voice shrieked behind her, the pure rage in the words telling Rose exactly what would happen if she stopped. So she didn't.

Admittedly, this was mostly her fault. She forgot that Jaune's town was one of those places where everyone knew everyone. While they escaped the Arc residence with ease, that did not guarantee success by a long shot. Case in point, this situation.

Rose didn't know who, but _someone_ tipped the Arcs off that a woman in red was trying to pull a fast one on them and make off with their boy. They took the information as well as one would expect.

Only her refined reflexes saved her from a surprise axe blade that seemed to come from nowhere. Rose dove to the side, very enamored with the idea of not being cleaved in two, she pulled Jaune to her chest and rolled. Twisting and springing back up so as to not stay on the ground for very long. Due to her manoeuvre, she ended up facing the people chasing her.

Under normal circumstances, a woman in her nightgown and a man wearing blue and white striped pyjamas wouldn't have come off as a threatening sight. Of course, this is assuming the woman _isn't_ holding a strange, clearly mechashift crossbow and the man _isn't_ lugging around a battle axe taller than his own montrous stature. Otherwise, it's pretty damn terrifying.

Mr and Mrs Arc fanned out, blocking Rose from escaping through the front or their sides. Why would they do that? Obviously, Rose can just go b-

Cold stone pressed against her as she stepped back, Rose glanced behind her to see a wall, around 20 feet in height. Why did she have to run away from two people in the dead of night in _their own town_? Of course they'd corner her! That's like, _the_ first step to any kind of chase.

The second step was capture, or worse.

"Give us our son now!" the man, Nelson Arc, demanded.

Now, Rose has seen a lot of scary things in her day, too much to count. Despite that, the anger in the man's voice as he bellowed at her _seriously_ made her reconsider this kidnapping-not-kidnapping for a moment.

It was only for a moment though, she steeled herself and bent her knees slightly. Even with the shattered moon as her only light source, Jaune's mother, Lilian Arc, noticed the movement and fired another crossbow bolt.

Rose figured the hitting their son wasn't much of a concern to Mrs Arc. She was _a very_ good shot. Not for the first time that night, Rose found her eye in serious danger of exiting through the back of her skull. The red huntress flicked her head sideways to avoid such an outcome. She channelled the power within her outwards.

The wind around her picked up.

Nelson charged forward with his axe held low, ready to relieve Rose of her legs.

The huntress heard the tell tale twanging noise of another crossbow bolt being let loose. Recent experience told her it was aimed at her head.

Neither spells of death met her.

The red clad woman rocketed upwards, her cloak fluttering in the winds she controlled. Easily clearing the wall's height, another gust of air sent her and her convoy over and out of the town.

She tucked and landed in a roll, Jaune rolled out of her grasp and ended up on his back. He was hyperventilating even though Rose did most of the running.

Rose figured now would be a good time for a joke to lighten the mood, laying in the grass and all. However, her words were lost as her instincts screamed at her to move.

She rolled to the side, her new position giving her a nice view of the large hunk of polished metal embedded in the grass of her old location.

Twisting and springing to her feet, Rose, unclipped Crescent Rose from her back and unfolded it just in time to block a diagonal axe swing from the man in pyjamas. The same man who just jumped over a 20 foot wall like it was nothing.

The melee continued from there, Rose tried to press the attack with her superior speed but Nelson must have been adept in fighting opponents faster than him because he blocked the strikes with unnerving ease.

Similarly, Rose was adept in combating enemies stronger than herself. She angled Crescent Rose diagonally to parry an overhead axe swing that she wouldn't have been able to take head on. She then used the momentum to stick the pointed butt end of the scythe into the ground.

Using the weapon as a pole, Rose vaulted forwards to deliver a kick to Nelson's chest. The mountain of a man flinched ever so slightly but gave no other indication of the attack harming him. He cocked a fist back in retaliation.

"Dad! Stop, she's good!"

Nelson paused to see Jaune standing nearby. It was too dark to see either of their expressions but Rose imagined indignation was on the forefront of the large man's face.

"Jaune, please don't side with your kidnapper." Nelson's tone went from unbridled rage to calm scolding in a second as he addressed his son.

"She's not a kidnapper, she's good. See, she's not even fighting you as we're talking."

Nelson spared Rose a glance before rounding back on Jaune, "Ok, so you were running away from home. Jaune, why would you do that?"

Jaune's voice suddenly dropped in volume, "To save the world 'n' stuff." he didn't sound particularly sure of himself.

Silence filled the air as Nelson processed the information. Once satisfied, he whirled on Rose pointing an accusing finger in her direction.

"You're one of Ozpin's lackeys, aren't you?" he didn't even give her a chance to answer before continuing, "Well, you can tell that silver haired _minx_ to stay the hell away from my children! There's a reason we packed up our stuff and moved to this no name town, to avoid the likes of you. No child of mine is ending up as a 'necessary sacrifice', so you can leave now." he made a vague gesture to the forest behind her.

Rose wasn't quite so ready to give up, "Sir, I'm not Ozpin, I don't work for him either, but this is important, your son is important, he can be a hero."

"I don't want a hero, I want a son! You're a huntress, you know what happens to heroes, what they end up as,"

Rose winced as names and faces flashed through her head.

 _Here lies Blake Belladonna, she die-_

 _In remembrance of Weiss Schnee, wh-_

 _Ms Yang Xiao Long-_

 _Nora Val-_

 _Lie Re-_

 _Taiyang-_

 _Qrow Brawn-_

On and on, the names and faces cycled in her head, the various memorials that had been erected in their names all remembered them as protectors, noble guardians.

Heroes.

Oh she knew, she knew exactly what became of them, Roman's words from all those years ago rang through her head.

" _You wanna be a hero? Then play the part and die like every other huntsman in history!"_

At the time, she didn't believe him. Huntsmen aren't supposed to die, their too strong, they always win. Sure it happens _sometimes_ but it's hardly a part they play, right?

She was young then, she hadn't seen the truth. Roman had.

Still, even with her eyes opened, she had to do this. This _had_ to happen, the alternative was so much worse. It wasn't an option.

"I-I'm sorry, sir."

Nelson didn't even get to finish his "Huh?" before Rose streaked forward in a flurry of crimson petals, she grabbed Jaune and blurred into the forest, well aware that she just made herself the Arc enemy number one.

Yup, _that's_ not gonna come back to bite her in the ass. Hopefully they don't check for her in Mistral.

* * *

Taiyang was absolutely loosing it.

He woke up on a beautiful summer day ready to greet his beautiful daughters. Yang didn't really appreciate the sentiment very much and Ruby?

Well… she's the reason he's loosing it.

"Have you found anything?" he asked, trying his best to avoid crushing the scroll in his hand in ever mounting anxiety.

" _I told you I'd call if did, all you're doing is slowing me down."_ the voice on the other end, Qrow, replied. He sounded frustrated, only natural seeing as he'd been out there for a bit over 2 hours.

Qrow cut the call before anymore conversation could be had. Tai ran a hand through his blonde locks as he drew a deep breath.

"Do you think Ruby will be fine?" the little blonde girl sitting next to him on the couch asked. Her voice alone told him that she was just about ready to cry.

Tai forced a smile unto his face, "Of course she'll be, your uncle is gonna find her and bring her back in no time."

Yang considered this before nodding, her lips lifting up slightly, "I'm gonna punch her for making us worry."

Tai's scroll rang, he thought it was Qrow at first but caller ID showed an unknown number. On top of that, it was a video call, Qrow didn't usually do video calls.

Tai accepted the call, not really knowing what to expect. Who he say made his heart stop.

"Ruby?!"

The girl in the scroll smiled, " _Hi, dad!"_

The man's eyes roved over his daughter's face, she seemed fine, unharmed at least, she also looked happy.

 _'What is going on?!'_

"Ruby, where are you?" Tai asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.

The girl paused before replying without the same vigour of before, " _He told me not to tell you."_ she answered apologetically.

"What? He? Ruby, have you been kidnapped?" the nightmare scenarios that he had forced down were beginning to rear their heads up once more.

The girl's eyes widened, " _No! It's not like that at all."_

Yang was trying to climb up Tai's chest at this point but the man was too focused on other things, "Then who is this 'he', why won't he let you tell us where you are?"

" _He's afraid that you'll come after me."_

Tai could feel a migraine coming on, "...Ruby, who is this man?"

" _His name is John, he's a huntsman like you, we're friends."_

"Can I talk to this 'John' for a moment."

Ruby shook her head, " _He's sleeping in the other room right now."_

"Are you locked up with chains and stuff?" it was Yang who asked this, squeezing herself between her dad's arms to get a good view of the screen.

Ruby waved, " _Hi, Yang! No, I'm not locked up, I can leave anytime. John said so."_

The migraine was getting worse, "Then come back!" Tai all but shouted, "If you can come leave then why not just come back?"

Ruby didn't answer instantly, " _Dad, this is important. It's really_ really _important, don't worry though, I'm fine, John's super nice, he said I can visit home whenever I want so I'll see you eventually. Just wait, okay?"_

What? Of course it's not okay, why would this be okay? His 8 year old daughter being abducted by some floozy named John. There's no way in hell this should be okay. To say it's okay is borderline retardation!

"No, it's not, young lady, I demand that you stop this nonsense right this instance." he levelled a glare at the screen. Even Yang nodded, a fact he was very proud of.

For a few seconds, Ruby wavered, her eyes flickering around until she eventually jutted out her chin and gave her answer.

" _No."_

Yang gasped while Tai stared at Ruby's defiant expression. _'What has gotten into her? Better yet what the hell is going on here!?'_

" _Dad, I get that you're mad, but I'll be okay. Anyway, bye Dad, bye Yang. I'll talk to you later."_

The call blinked off. Tai screamed to the heavens.

* * *

 **Done. Whaddya guys think?**

 **I'm really surprised with the positive response to this fic. Surprised but incredibly glad. All I can say is thanks.**

 **Till the next time.**

 **Astron.**


	3. Chapter 3

I'm sorry.

Essentially life got in my way then I started uni and figured I wouldn't have a lot of time to write this while I was in university.

That led to me dropping the story because I'm an extremely slow writer

You can probably guess where I got extra time from. Even with that, it was my sister who got me to come back to this fic.

Enough of that, though. On to the next chapter.

* * *

"Hey Rose, I've been wondering something." Jaune stated, shouldering his backpack for what had to be the twentieth time that day. The two were trudging through the forest, trying their best to make it to the coast in good time.

Apparently, the plan Rose had concocted with Future Jaune involved leaving Sanus for a few years. Something about dodging 'The inevitable heat'.

"Hmm?" she replied even though she didn't turn to face him.

"If I wasn't trained by my parents, how did I get into Beacon? I thought you had to be very good."

"Well, duh, you cheated."

The boy stumbled in his surprise,

"W-Wah?" was his incredibly suave response.

Rose turned to him and giggled, Jaune felt his face heat up, "You faked your transcripts, I don't know how, but you did. I'm pretty sure the headmaster knew, though."

"He knew?! Why'd he let me in?"

"I don't know, something about potential. If you ask me, ol' Ozzy has a few screws loose. That's straight up child endangerment."

There was silence between the two. Jaune took the time to stare at his hand. After a few seconds of squinting, the hand started glowing with a white light, a smile etched itself onto the boy's face

"This Aura stuff, I didn't have it unlocked either?"

Rose snorted, "You didn't even know it existed. Not until Beacon's initiation, anyway."

"Wait, so how did I stay in beacon, how did I even pass their initiation?"

"Sheer willpower. A badass partner, luck and of course, bullshit Aura." the huntress held up her hand and counted off each reason individually with her fingers.

Jaune blinked in confusion, "What was that last one?"

Rose paused and thought about her last statement, she then reached a hand up and scratched the back of her neck, "Hehe, don't tell John I swore, okay?" she requested sheepishly.

"No, I was talking about my Aura, what's wrong with it?"

"Oh, that. Just forget about the swear and we're good," she waited for Jaune to nod before continuing, "Long story short, you got a lot of aura, meaning you fight for longer. On top of that, your Aura is strangely… automatic? Sure, let's go with automatic. Whether it has something to do with your semblance or the size of your reserves, we're not sure."

"Woah, so I have like… super Aura? That's so cool!"

That comment earned a look from Rose, she studied Jaune for a second before muttering something he couldn't hear. He was about to ask her to repeat herself before she spoke up, "You think you're ready for another sprint? I'm pretty sure we can reach the coast in one go."

Jaune's stomach churned as he remembered the last two 'sprints', he grimaced but nodded all the same.

Rose's grin was the last thing the boy saw before the world streaked and warped in a flurry of rose petals.

* * *

This is torture.

It's torture, nothing else.

Ruby's lungs screamed in agony, all her muscles begged for her to stop. She didn't have to hurt, it wasn't necessary.

Then she saw him, wearing a loose grey shirt and black pants, he didn't have any armour on today, leaving his toned, scarred arms out for the world to see.

He was running, he was running the same route as her, the same distance. There was only one problem, he looked perfectly fine, not a single golden strand of hair out of place.

"C'mon, you're supposed to be running circles around me." John crooned, spinning on his heel to face her, meaning he was now running backwards.

The words gave the girl her second wind. Sadly, said wind was purely mental, the rest of her body was not ready for this new found drive and promptly folded under the pressure.

Ruby tripped over the air near her feet, instinctively tucking and rolling onto her back to avoid injuring herself. Exhaustion pinned her to the grass as she gasped and sputtered like oxygen was going out of style.

Blinking, Ruby saw the blonde man looking down at her with a singular sapphire eye, his figure eclipsing the sun, "This is going to happen a lot, by the way." he stated.

"How *gasp* no *wheeze* tired?" Ruby asked in her best 'out of breath caveman' impression.

John tilted his head, letting a beam of sunlight to enter Ruby's vision once more, "I'm more than

four times your age, on top of being a huntsman. Surely, I should have more stamina than you. I was joking when I said you should be running circles around me."

It made sense, of course he'd be better than her, he's a huntsman, she's 8, they were far from equals. Still, couldn't he at least pretend to be affected by the same run that had Ruby aching and paining all over.

He stuck a glowing hand out and Ruby felt aching slowly subside. Soreness took its place but the girl welcomed it with a soft sigh.

"Alright," John said, the shining aura leaving his hand "let's go home."

The bungalow that John had called their new home was about as cozy as it was empty. There existed exactly one piece of furniture in the entire house, a long wooden rectangular dining table. It didn't take a genius to tell that there wasn't going to be a lot of dining taking place on said dining table.

Several books and loose sheets of paper littered the surface, Crocea Mors laid with them amongst a myriad of other weapons.

'Note to self, buy chairs.' John didn't know why the cottage's previous owner took everything from it before vacating the premises for good but it left him sitting and sleeping on the wooden floor for the past 3 days.

After reaching the village (John kept forgetting the name, something with a G), he took residence in the recently abandoned building near the outskirts. Sure, he didn't actually tell any of the other villagers that he was moving in, but it really wasn't their business. Besides, they'll figure it out in time.

*Thud! Thud! Thud!*

John was pulled from his musings by a noise from the front door. Most people would have assumed that someone was trying to break into the house with how loud it was but John knew

better.

She wasn't trying.

The door smashed open to reveal a figure on the porch, the figure placed her hands on her hips before exclaiming, "Honey! I'm home!"

Despite the immaturity of it all, John couldn't help but grin at his wife's entrance. Rose stepped up to him on her toes to plant a kiss on his cheek, "Did you miss me?" she asked.

John tilted his head and hummed, as if considering her question, "A little, I guess."

Rose let out a soft giggle before jerking a thumb over her shoulder, "Your new brat is over there. Go easy on him, he's had a long trip."

* * *

Jaune didn't know if he believed what he was seeing.

It seemed a bit narcissistic to say that he knew he could ever become that huge.

Big Jaune - John - stepped closer, forcing Little Jaune - Jaune - to tilt his head back comically far just to stay looking the huntsman's face.

"What happened to your eye?" was the first thing Jaune asked, pointing to the man's eye patch to clarify which eye he was talking about.

John flipped up said eye patch to reveal a greyed out orb. It wasn't shining silver like Rose's, Jaune noted, more of a dull grey. The man then answered, "Evil scorpion man 'bout near took it from the socket." he took the patch off altogether, giving Jaune a better view of the scar that cut diagonally through from the end of the huntsman's eyebrow, stopping right before his nose.

"Oh, will that happen to me?"

John squatted so he could be eye level with his younger self, he stared the boy down for a moment before planting a hand on his shoulder, "Probably not, no promises though. Something worse could happen."

Ah.

* * *

Rose slid into the room to see Ruby sitting on the floor, focused on the scroll in her hands, "Whatcha looking at?" Rose asked.

The question startled the girl upright, "Wow! You're me, that's so cool!" the girl dropped the scroll and ran up to get a closer look.

"Cool, huh?" The huntress struck a pose, "Do you want to be as cool as me?"

Ruby's eyes where as wide as saucers, "Can I? "

This caused Rose to grin, she stopped posing and ruffled her younger self's hair, "Stick with me, you'll see."

* * *

"It's been 5 days, how have you not found this guy yet?"

Ozpin sighed, he completely understood why Qrow was frustrated, but this situation was somewhat out his hands, "I sent the details to Ironwood, the signal is untraceable. You yourself said your niece is nowhere to be seen on patch, no bullheads would have legally let her fly without identification, I'm sorry Qrow but I can't think of how to locate her at the moment, maybe if I had an army of 500 spies at my disposal I could've dealt with this but you're all I have."

Qrow looked ready to give a heated retort when Ozpin got a call from beacon's reception, the headmaster answered.

"Sir, you have a visitor."

"Tell them to wait, I'm busy."

"He's already in the elevator, I couldn't stop him. As a heads up, he seemed angry with you, very angry."

The receptionist hung up.

Ozpin motioned to Qrow and the huntsman, despite his conviction, stepped out of the elevator door's direct line of sight. This could be a very brazen enemy of his so it was lucky Ozpin had his most trusted and skilled ally in the room with him.

The elevator doors slid open.

Ozpin breathed a small sigh of relief, "Mr Arc, what brings you here after all these years? "

Nelson Arc was one of Ozpins more promising students. Sure, the two of them didn't part ways on the best terms, but the man had a good heart that wouldn't fall to Salem's side no matter what.

That's why Ozpin found it strange that Nelson answered his question by cleaving his desk in two with his massive battle axe.

"Give me my son back." ah, so the desk-cleaving was a greeting, while the answer was 'Give me my son back'.

Ozpin picked a splinter out of his hair and gave a measured response, "I... Didn't know you had a son, congratulations. "

Nelson left his axe in the ruins of Ozpin's desk and drew a sword at his hip, leaving pointed to the ground as a clear and visible threat, "I don't want your bullshit, I saw that Rose girl. You obviously sent her to kidnap my son, after I specifically told you to leave me alone."

"Wait, Rose girl? Who are you talking about?"

Qrow asked, breaking his cover.

"I don't remember her name!" Nelson snapped, not surprised by Qrow's presence buy definitely peeved by him asking such a question, "The one with the weirdly coloured hair and the silver eyes, wore a cloak all the time, works for this goblin, I think her name started with s, Sarah or something."

Ozpin and Qrow shared a look, "Do you mean... Summer?" Ozpin asked.

"That's the bitch! Where did she take my son?"

"Mr Arc, Summer has been dead for 3 years"

That seemed to suck the air out of Nelson's sails for half second, then he rounded back, "So a ghost stole my son?! I'm supposed to accept that?"

Ozpin didn't know what to say, two children stolen from their homes at the same time, it had to be related, "Mr Arc, I believe we have a common enemy, maybe we can work together to get your son back."

Now if only he knew who that enemy was.

* * *

I don't know when I can write another chapter. It could be 2 weeks or another year. Again, I'm sorry.


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